Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks he and Maria Shriver deserve an Oscar for how they handled their divorce after it was discovered that he had fathered a child with their housekeeper

• Arnold Schwarzenegger feels proud of how he and Maria Shriver kept their divorce amicable.
• Shriver filed for divorce in 2011 after discovering her husband had a son with their housekeeper.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is pretty proud of how he and his former wife Maria Shriver handled their 2011 separation, which came following the news that the former bodybuilder had fathered a love child with their housekeeper.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the "Terminator" star reflected on his separation from Shriver, who he was married to for 25 years before the news of his infidelity rocked their marriage.

Schwarzenegger, 75, said that the divorce was "was very, very difficult in the beginning," but said that "eventually, you move on."

Although Shriver filed for divorce soon after she confronted her then-husband in a marriage counseling session the day after Schwarzenegger left office as Governor of California, the pair did not finalize their divorce until December 2021.

Schwarzenegger actually thinks he and Shriver deserve recognition for the way they handled the derailment of their marriage while raising four children together.

He said: "If there's Oscars for how to handle divorce, Maria and I should get it for having the least amount of impact on the kids."

The "Total Recall" actor said that he and Shriver are "really good friends and very close, and we are very proud of the way we raised our kids."

Schwarzenegger added that even though he has a "wonderful" and "successful" girlfriend, Heather Milligan, he still cares for his ex-wife.

"Even though we had this drama, we did Easter together, Mother's Day together, the Christmases together, all birthdays — everything together."

The former Mr. Universe and the niece of John F. Kennedy share daughters Katherine, 33, and Christina, 31, and sons Patrick, 29, and Christopher, 25, together.

On his kids, he added: "The sweetness and kindness you see in them, that's from my wife. The discipline and work ethic is from me."

Schwarzenegger is also father to 25-year-old Joseph Baena, whom he shares with his former housekeeper, Mildred Patricia Baena, who has followed in his footsteps and become a professional bodybuilder.

In his 2012 autobiography, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story," Schwarzenegger said that he was initially in denial that Baena was his son, but as the years went by, their resemblance could not be denied.

Elsewhere in the interview, Schwarzenegger said that the irony that his character in his upcoming Netflix series "FUBAR" is a divorced man whose marriage partly failed because he cheated is not lost on him or Shriver.

"We were laughing about it — it feels like it's a documentary," he said but added that there were several differences between his on-screen character's divorce and his own.

"But in [my real-life marriage to Shriver], it was my fuckup. It was my failure."